2.0.0 Released

This morning I’ve released WordPoints version 2.0.0. As I’ve explained previously, this is a breaking update, and you should test before updating if you are using any custom code that integrates with the plugin. (Modules downloaded from WordPoints.org should work fine; I’ve tested them over the past week to be sure.)

This isn’t a very featurefull update (more on that in a minute), but it does include improved support for emoji 🎉, as well as a few bugfixes:

The modules-per-page setting on the Modules screen was fixed so that it actually changes the number of modules per page (how novel!).

An error would appear on the confirmation screen when attempting to delete a module. This would happen for most modules, preventing them from being deleted.

The points logs cache was not being cleaned in certain cases, like when a user was deleted. This would cause deleted logs to continue to display, if persistent caching was being used.

The loading spinner was not displaying on the Ranks screen while a rank was being saved. This bug only affected WordPress 4.2.

Although version 2.0 doesn’t include any major new features, a lot of work was done to prepare for improvements in the coming versions. This has included work on the code of WordPoints itself, and also development of new code which will be added to WordPoints later. This work will not only make it easier to add new features to WordPoints in the future, it will also make it easier to develop extensions for the plugin.

One of the things that a lot of work has been done on is reprogramming the code behind the points hooks from scratch. I’ve been developing this as a module, which will be merged into WordPoints when it is ready (probably in version 2.1). It will lay the groundwork for a plethora of new features, including retroactive points hooks, a BuddyPress module, and a Badges component. Not all of that will follow immediately, but it will begin to happen over the next few releases. The plan is to work on the BuddyPress module first, and then on the core features and many other modules. There are many feature requests, and this work on rewriting the points hooks is a major step toward integration with other plugins and all sorts of other features.

So, 2.0 may not seem very exciting, but don’t let it fool you. The best is yet to come. Just wait and see.

About J.D. Grimes

J.D. is the creator of WordPoints. In addition to web development, he also enjoys nature photography. The most important thing about him, though, is that Jesus Christ died for him to pay for his sins. He looks forward to meeting Jesus face to face in heaven one day, and he hopes he'll see you there, too.